[00:00:10] Speaker A: On this episode of common mystics, we dive into the chilling yet intriguing story of a double homicide in a small southern Illinois town.
I'm Jennifer James.
[00:00:24] Speaker B: I'm Jill Stanley.
[00:00:25] Speaker A: We're psychics.
[00:00:27] Speaker B: We're sisters.
[00:00:28] Speaker A: We are common mystics. We find extraordinary stories in ordinary places. And today's story takes us to Ina, Illinois.
[00:00:36] Speaker B: Okay, so, you guys, we actually found this story on the road before we got to Cairo, but. Or Cairo. Sorry, sorry, sorry. I can see it in your face.
But Jennifer found the Cairo story first, so we're kind of backtracking a little bit. So we are heading from Jennifer's house to Dallas, and we were getting our feels on in the car after we set our intention. Can you remind everyone what our intention is, Jennifer?
[00:01:03] Speaker A: Our intention is to find a verifiable story previously unknown to us that allows us to give voice to the voiceless.
[00:01:13] Speaker B: Well, that's right. That's absolutely right. And let's talk about our hits in the car, because we were both. So we're driving. We're driving, and we both, out of nowhere, see this big facility, right? And it was like, what is that? And then we saw the barbed wire, and I was like, oh, prison.
[00:01:30] Speaker A: Yeah, I believe it was the big muddy river correctional facility.
[00:01:35] Speaker B: Yes. It's a medium security prison for men located in Ina. Right? That's how you say it.
[00:01:42] Speaker A: Yeah. Ina.
[00:01:43] Speaker B: Ina.
[00:01:43] Speaker A: I mean, that's how the. The lady at the pizza place said. They say their name.
[00:01:47] Speaker B: What do you mean? What lady do you speak of?
[00:01:50] Speaker A: I didn't know if it was Ina or Ina, so I wanted to ask a local. So I went to the map, and I found a restaurant that was open, and I called. It was like, a pizza place. And she was like, hi, may I please? You know, do you want to place an order? And I was like, no, I just need to know how you say your town. And she was like, ina. And I was like, thank you very much, young lady. And that was it. So I have it on authority that the young lady working at the Masianos in Ina, Illinois, says we say Ina. So there you have it.
[00:02:18] Speaker B: There you have it. Good idea. Very resourceful.
[00:02:21] Speaker A: Thanks.
[00:02:22] Speaker B: So that prison, like you said, the big muddy River Correctional Facility, it is a medium security state prison for men located in Ina, Illinois, in Jefferson County. Okay.
[00:02:33] Speaker A: That's right.
[00:02:34] Speaker B: Yes. And I was feeling there should be a bigger city there. Like, the story is from the city there, but I was like, there should be a city here. You know what I mean? Like, yeah.
[00:02:46] Speaker A: Cause we didn't see a town?
[00:02:47] Speaker B: We didn't see a town. We just saw this correctional facility. So it was very confusing. What were you feeling?
[00:02:53] Speaker A: Well, I was feeling a conversion of two waters together. Like two different streams, two different rivers coming together.
[00:03:02] Speaker B: And then you noted on the notes.
[00:03:04] Speaker A: A body of water called Rend Lake. And I just wrote it down on the notes because it seemed like it might be important.
[00:03:13] Speaker B: I had the song that you famously sang in 8th grade. I don't know why you don't sing in public anymore. Eagle's wings.
[00:03:21] Speaker A: Like the hymn from church.
[00:03:23] Speaker B: Do you want to?
[00:03:23] Speaker A: It's a pretty one, dude.
[00:03:25] Speaker B: I didn't think you liked it.
[00:03:27] Speaker A: I do like it. It's hard to sing, though.
[00:03:30] Speaker B: You don't have to sing, like, the whole full on, but give them a couple notes, and he will raise you.
[00:03:35] Speaker A: Up on eagles wings.
[00:03:38] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:03:39] Speaker A: That one I love. Yeah. It's a God song. It's a hymn. You sing it in church.
[00:03:42] Speaker B: It's a God song. It's a hymn.
Gosh, look at you all promoting it. What else did we note in the car that was also like, God up in your face, big creepy cross.
[00:03:55] Speaker A: I shouldn't say creepy whenever you just see big white crosses. It freaks me out a little bit. Cause usually that comes with a certain agenda, and I don't know. I don't know if I subscribe to that agenda. You know what I mean?
[00:04:07] Speaker B: I definitely don't subscribe to that agenda. And I don't feel like God, like the almighty, needs these kind of, like, monuments. Do you know what I'm saying? Like, it's huge. It is, like the size of a building. Like, it should not. I don't know. I don't think God needs that. But what do I know?
[00:04:25] Speaker A: Tell us about Charlotte's web, Jill.
[00:04:27] Speaker B: I had the song in my head from Charlotte's web. Fine swine wishy was mine. Zuckerman's famous pig Ooey. What do you see? The famous hog of history. Fine swine wishes bite. What if he's not so big?
[00:04:41] Speaker A: That's enough. Yeah, that was. That's a great song.
[00:04:43] Speaker B: Great song.
[00:04:44] Speaker A: From the cartoon Charlotte's web. Based on the book.
[00:04:47] Speaker B: Yes. Love it.
[00:04:48] Speaker A: Yes.
[00:04:48] Speaker B: That was stuck in my head. What were you.
[00:04:51] Speaker A: I was picking up on Truman Capote, who was clearly famous, I would say most famous, for his novel in cold blood. Based on a true story of a murder.
[00:05:06] Speaker B: Yes.
[00:05:06] Speaker A: In a small town, I guess, in, like, a farming community.
[00:05:10] Speaker B: Yeah, I read the book. It was good.
[00:05:12] Speaker A: Oh, yeah.
[00:05:13] Speaker B: Terribly tragic, but good book.
[00:05:15] Speaker A: Okay, so you took the lead on the research.
[00:05:18] Speaker B: I sure did, Jennifer. I sure did. And what did we find?
[00:05:23] Speaker A: Well, apparently, you found a crazy double murder case. Right in the area where we were driving through Ina, Illinois.
[00:05:34] Speaker B: Mm hmm. Tell us a little.
[00:05:37] Speaker A: In fact, it was one of the most sensational stories to rock Jefferson County, Illinois. And even though it happened 65 years ago, it still remains etched in the memory of people from the area.
[00:05:54] Speaker B: That should have been a question for the pizza girl.
[00:05:58] Speaker A: We can always call her back.
[00:06:00] Speaker B: She's gonna be like, why are you calling me?
[00:06:03] Speaker A: I know.
You know what? In my defense, I called city hall first, thinking there would be some sort of voice recording, and there wasn't. So, sorry. No, but seriously, newspapers across the nation in 1924 were reporting these gripping events. And there was even a folk song that emerged about this scandalous love affair and the tragic murders. And there were special trains that ferried spectators to the trial. It was like a big deal.
[00:06:35] Speaker B: It sounds like a huge deal.
[00:06:37] Speaker A: So let's talk about the incident.
[00:06:42] Speaker B: The infamous incident.
[00:06:45] Speaker A: We're gonna start on July 16, 1924, with a married couple out of Ina, Illinois. Their names are Wilford or Jack Sweetin and his wife, Elsie Sweetin.
[00:07:03] Speaker B: That's right. Tell me a little bit about Wilford, Jack.
[00:07:07] Speaker A: Okay, so he went by Jack in real life, but you called him Wilford throughout this outline. So we're gonna call him Wilford. Sorry, Jack.
[00:07:15] Speaker B: Okay.
[00:07:16] Speaker A: Wilford was a worker at the nason mine nearby, which was a coal mine. So that's pretty hard work. He was a working a working Joe or working. Working Jack. And he had a minor injury to his arm and was off work for.
[00:07:38] Speaker B: A little while, no pun intended.
[00:07:40] Speaker A: And he and his wife Elsie, decided to go into town, into Benton, Illinois, and run some errands. It's unclear whether their children were with them that day, but they did have three boys.
[00:07:55] Speaker B: From the articles, I gather that the kids weren't with them. But, you know, they could have had a babysitter. In laws could have been watching them.
[00:08:02] Speaker A: Yeah, we we don't know exactly, but apparently they took a little bit of a holiday away from the kids. Jack hurt his arm, and they went into Benton, Illinois, to run some errands. Elsie drove. And while they were in Benton, they stopped at a drugstore. Because drugstores were really cool back then. Like, you could, there was a counter, and you could order a malted milk or a milkshake. And anyway, so they stopped at a local drugstore. They had Coca Cola and ice cream.
[00:08:33] Speaker B: Oh, just like George Bailey.
[00:08:36] Speaker A: George Bailey. And it's a wonderful life. Exactly. Mm hmm.
I think we should bring that back.
[00:08:43] Speaker B: I actually don't know why we wouldn't.
[00:08:45] Speaker A: Like having a counter with soft drinks. Like, why not just hang out at the drugstore? I don't know. So anyway, they also bought some candy and some peanuts. They were just, you know, making a little bit of a treat of the whole situation.
But then, as Elsie was driving them home, Wilford started to feel sick.
He started to feel nauseous.
And upon coming back, Elsie said she wasn't feeling well either, and so they both went to lie down.
[00:09:22] Speaker B: Hmm.
[00:09:23] Speaker A: Now, later that day, Elsie found Wilford really sick in bed, like he was looking gravely ill. And so she was sort of panicked, and she called a doctor, doctor Foster, and she reached out to another doctor, Doctor Harper. So you get the feeling that she's calling one doctor after another, saying, no, no, no, he's really sick. And both doctors that she talked to said, well, you had ice cream, you had chocolate candy. You probably have food poisoning, which to.
[00:09:56] Speaker B: Me, I don't understand, because those, like, if they had, like, a mexican chicken dish, then I would be like, yeah, possibly food poisoning, but they had ice cream and soda, so. And candy and candy and peanuts and peanuts. But when you get food poisoning, what do you usually. It's usually for meat.
[00:10:15] Speaker A: I mean, I associate food poisoning with restaurants when.
Yeah, when you're eating something that came to you from a kitchen where meat was prepared, it doesn't necessarily mean from meat, but something that is around meat. Like, the same counter was used for meat. But I don't know. I mean, that's what the doctor said, you know, it could have been the chocolate, could have been the ice cream, could have been the peanuts. In any event, I would imagine that most of the time, food poisoning gets through you pretty quick.
[00:10:46] Speaker B: I was thinking the same thing, like, 24 hours.
[00:10:48] Speaker A: Yeah. But Wilford continued to get worse, and he was vomiting and he had severe pain. And so Elsie called another doctor, Doctor Clinton, and he provided morphine shots to Wilfred so that he wouldn't be so miserable. You know, he was in a lot of pain if they gave him morphine.
[00:11:10] Speaker B: What's, see, that's another thing about this situation. What I don't understand, if we're talking food poisoning, why is it persistent and prolonged? Right. Why is it not out of his system and he's already, like, shitting? And, like, when you have food poisoning, everything is coming out of either end. Right?
[00:11:30] Speaker A: For sure. Mm hmm.
[00:11:31] Speaker B: It feels like they shouldn't. They should have ditched the morphine and given him, like, saline, because he was probably really dehydrated. If he's like. I don't. If. Yeah, his symptoms are consistent with real food poisoning. I'm really concerned why it isn't going away. Right, right.
[00:11:48] Speaker A: I mean, maybe they did give him fluids, but they gave him morphine, and they probably didn't know how dangerous that was back in the day. I mean, they were probably drinking Coca Cola that had cocaine in it, to be completely honest. So, anyway, those were the days.
A week passed, Jill. A week. And he was not getting better.
And so there was another doctor. Who else? He called a doctor, Thompson. And he also said, no, no, no. It looks like food poisoning to me. So four different doctors. She calls out to it, really. It appears that she is desperate, desperate to help her poor husband who is sick.
Well. Sunday, July 27, 1924. Ten days after their fateful trip, Benton to run errands, Wilford's health had deteriorated to a critical state.
Desperately, Elsie called upon those doctors again, all four doctors.
And then she also called the reverend, the local reverend, Reverend Lawrence height. He came over, too, which makes sense. If he's really, really. If her husband's really sick, you want to call the local preacher or priest or minister or whatever.
And so Reverend Haidt was there, offering prayers and words of comfort to Elsie and the family.
But tragically, Jill, on the morning of Monday, July 28, at 315, Wilford sadly passed away. He was 41 years old. He left Elsie to navigate widowhood with their three small children.
The four attending physicians conducted an autopsy and noted that Wilford had an enlarged liver. They concluded that he likely succumbed to cirrhosis.
That's sad. That's really young.
[00:13:49] Speaker B: That's really young. But I'm thinking, like, the symptoms of cirrhosis. How could they have thought. How could four different doctors be, like, food poisoning? Food poisoning. Food poisoning. Nope. Cirrhosis.
I get the autopsy thing, but, like, I feel like the symptoms are so different for food poisoning than cirrhosis. Right?
[00:14:12] Speaker A: I don't know. But it does seem curious, doesn't it, that they were all, like, dope. Food poisoning, and they're like, oh, cirrhosis.
[00:14:18] Speaker B: I know. Continue.
[00:14:20] Speaker A: Well, there was a heartfelt memorial service at the local Methodist church led by Reverend Haidt, the same reverend who had come to the house to comfort the family during Wilford's illness.
And Wilford was laid to rest at Kirk Cemetery the following afternoon. His body had not been embalmed.
[00:14:42] Speaker B: Okay. Is that the usual practice?
[00:14:45] Speaker A: I'm not sure.
[00:14:46] Speaker B: I thought you looked it up.
[00:14:47] Speaker A: That's why I forgot to look it up.
[00:14:49] Speaker B: I'll look it up.
[00:14:50] Speaker A: Ask the Google.
[00:14:52] Speaker B: It actually became pretty common during the civil war.
[00:14:56] Speaker A: All right, so that would have been unusual, then, for them not to embalm.
Embalm the husband, Wilford.
[00:15:07] Speaker B: It's interesting that we got that practice because of the civil war, because they were preserving the bodies of the men that died so far away from home.
[00:15:16] Speaker A: So brother Haidt, at the funeral, delivered a powerful eulogy. He proclaimed that Wilford had died a saved man, a Christian.
[00:15:26] Speaker B: A quote is, I converted him on his deathbed, and he gave his soul to God.
[00:15:35] Speaker A: Was that. I'm getting a little bit of Clinton.
[00:15:39] Speaker B: Oh, okay.
[00:15:40] Speaker A: I'm getting that. Which is appropriate for Clinton was from, you know, Arkansas. Not too far from.
[00:15:45] Speaker B: Not too far.
[00:15:46] Speaker A: Not too far.
Yeah. He concluded the service with a humble acknowledgement of his unworthiness to preach at such a momentous farewell.
[00:15:58] Speaker B: I myself feel like I shouldn't be here saying these words.
[00:16:03] Speaker A: After Wilford's death, Elsie worked as a clerk, cared for her three boys, and still found time for her church activities. Poor Elsie.
Rumors had circulated, however, about her and the reverend. And neighbors noticed that on the morning of the funeral, Reverend Haidt was seen comforting Elsie on her porch swing, rubbing her face, arms, and breasts. Huh.
[00:16:38] Speaker B: Huh.
[00:16:40] Speaker A: Well, that's an unusual way to comfort someone.
[00:16:43] Speaker B: Uh, yeah. I mean, that's odd.
[00:16:48] Speaker A: Unexpected.
[00:16:49] Speaker B: No, I'm taking, like, I don't. I mean, I don't know. That's not how I comfort people.
[00:16:58] Speaker A: I should hope not.
[00:17:00] Speaker B: The next time you're crying, I just. I feel like, first of all, I. You don't want.
[00:17:07] Speaker A: When you're sad, you're so nasty.
[00:17:09] Speaker B: You just don't want to be touched. You know what I mean? Like, it's such a vulnerable time, and it's like, why? What?
[00:17:15] Speaker A: Oh, especially by, like, a man of God.
Yeah. Don't.
Anyway, so, yeah, neighbors had seen this, and so that started their lips. A wagon, as it would.
[00:17:29] Speaker B: As it would.
[00:17:30] Speaker A: In August, Elsie spent a few days at a camp meeting, sort of a church revival type of situation, where, of course, Reverend Haidta was present, as well as his wife Anna.
[00:17:45] Speaker B: Oh, so he's married, too. Okay. Okay.
[00:17:47] Speaker A: He's married. And apparently, they were mismatched a little bit because Anna was unusually tall and they say heavy for. For the time, and Reverend Haidt was a little on the shorter side.
[00:18:01] Speaker B: Mm hmm. He had little man syndrome.
[00:18:04] Speaker A: I mean, I didn't know him. I can't say that for sure.
[00:18:08] Speaker B: As a tall woman, I can tell you that. Men, always short men always feel like it's a conquest. And it's like you are. No. No.
Like, no. I wouldn't even let you hump my leg. No.
[00:18:24] Speaker A: Okay. Thanks for that image.
Yeah. So poor Anna. Apparently, Jill Anna felt really self conscious about her size, especially next to her husband. And so they didn't go out together a lot. So it was unusual that Reverend Haidt and his wife would be together at this church meeting. Reverend Haidt, who had served various churches in southern Illinois, was a very sought after speaker. So he kind of has some celebrity going on in the, in the church circuit.
[00:18:52] Speaker B: Mm hmm.
[00:18:53] Speaker A: Yet the people of Ina, Illinois continue to speculate about his relationship with the attractive 32 year old widow Elsie.
Now, the thing about Elsie was people who wrote about her said she was more average than pretty, but she was like a regular size, right? She was like, medium build, medium weight, but she had gray eyes and bright white teeth.
[00:19:23] Speaker B: I don't know why we're shaming people's sizes in this episode, because I think every size is beautiful. It doesn't matter.
[00:19:30] Speaker A: I'm getting people a picture, a visual picture of what these women were like. And although Elsie people said she was just kind of average looking, she did have a sort of charisma to her, so people were drawn to her personality.
[00:19:45] Speaker B: Reverend height had beautiful, stunning blue eyes that when he looked at you, it.
[00:19:50] Speaker A: Was like, calm down, Jill.
[00:19:51] Speaker B: That's what they, that's what they said, jennifer. That's.
[00:19:54] Speaker A: You want him to comfort you, don't you, Jill? You want him to.
[00:19:57] Speaker B: No. He's little.
[00:19:59] Speaker A: He's just a little guy.
It's perfect.
You would make.
[00:20:03] Speaker B: Oh, my God. Yeah. Oh. Anyway, little preacher man.
[00:20:09] Speaker A: On Saturday, September 6, 1924, after returning from the camp meeting, Reverend Haidt went to the store to buy minced ham for sandwiches. Now, he wasn't very hungry, but his wife, Anna, who, by the way, weighed around 200 pounds of, had quite a large serving of the minced ham.
By the way, just saying the words minced ham make me throw up a little in my mouth.
[00:20:36] Speaker B: I don't know what that is. I don't want to know.
[00:20:38] Speaker A: You don't want to know?
[00:20:39] Speaker B: I have absolutely, like.
[00:20:41] Speaker A: No, I'm sure it's very good.
[00:20:43] Speaker B: To me, it sounds like chopped up spam.
[00:20:47] Speaker A: It's lunch meat.
It's processed ham that's forced together into lunch meat shape and then sliced is what I'm imagining.
Shall we continue?
[00:20:58] Speaker B: So gross.
[00:21:00] Speaker A: So Anna. Anna was eating this minced ham that her husband, Reverend Haidt, brought home. But he wasn't hungry, so he didn't have any. And then soon after, she and the children, who apparently were eating this minced ham, too, all began complaining of indigestion.
And by Sunday, Anna was vomiting and experiencing severe stomach pain. Well, this sounds familiar.
[00:21:27] Speaker B: Mm hmm.
[00:21:29] Speaker A: When her condition hadn't improved, by Monday, Reverend Haidt called Doctor Clinton. Well, wasn't he at the other guy's house? He was at Elsie's house.
[00:21:38] Speaker B: He treated Wilford.
[00:21:39] Speaker A: So doctor Clinton came over, and by Tuesday, Anna was paralyzed from the neck down.
[00:21:49] Speaker B: Okay, so tell me again. It's food poisoning.
[00:21:51] Speaker A: That is a hell of a case of food poisoning. Paralyzed from the neck down.
[00:21:56] Speaker B: I mean, Thursday.
[00:21:59] Speaker A: Holy cow. By Thursday, Jill, she's vomiting blood.
[00:22:03] Speaker B: So vomiting blood.
[00:22:05] Speaker A: Vomiting blood is a.
[00:22:07] Speaker B: That is a side effect of cirrhosis.
[00:22:09] Speaker A: I mean, that's pretty serious. That isn't that one of, like, the top reasons, like, the top indicators that you need to get to an er? It's, like, shortness of breath, chest pains, vomit. Anything vomiting?
[00:22:23] Speaker B: Yeah, anything blood related?
[00:22:26] Speaker A: Yeah, anything. If blood is coming out of an orifice that you don't expect, I think you need to get to the hospital.
[00:22:34] Speaker B: One of my neighbors died with complications of cirrhosis, and. And that person was vomiting blood.
[00:22:42] Speaker A: Oh, my gosh.
[00:22:43] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:22:44] Speaker A: So, doctor. Another doctor. Doctor Elvis was consulted. And doctor Elvis and Clinton both concluded that Anna was suffering from ptomaine poisoning. Now, I did look this up to main is a substance that grows on, like, putrid meat or vegetables, and so it is the cause of food poisoning.
[00:23:10] Speaker B: That is actually what the other doctors were calling Wilford's tomato condition. Uh huh. But I took it out because no one knew what that meant. So I'm like, well, you left it.
[00:23:20] Speaker A: In here, so I know.
[00:23:22] Speaker B: Surprise.
[00:23:24] Speaker A: So, on September 12, 1924, Anna Haidt, age 44, passed away.
This is tragic.
She and Reverend Haidt had been married for 26 years, and they had three children together.
Anna was taken to metropolis, Illinois, her hometown, for burial in Miller Cemetery.
Now, when Haidt returned to Ina, he found that his wife's tragic death had ignited a whirlwind of speculation and intrigue in his hometown.
Once again, people are talking.
Not only is she is he comforting her boobies on her front porch, but now his wife is gone, as well.
[00:24:13] Speaker B: As her husband and purportedly of the same cause.
[00:24:19] Speaker A: Right.
Interesting.
[00:24:21] Speaker B: Mm hmm.
[00:24:22] Speaker A: Interesting. Because Anna had eaten minced ham, but Wilford had eaten peanuts, coke, and. Yeah, ice cream and coke.
Hmm. Interesting.
[00:24:35] Speaker B: Did they do any. Is there any way to test, like, if.
If someone was poisoned, like, they like, I'm thinking of the Swope family. Is there a way to test for that?
[00:24:47] Speaker A: Well, the coroner in Jefferson county launched an investigation and analyzed the contents of. Of Anna Heidt's stomach.
[00:24:56] Speaker B: Ooh. What'd they find?
[00:24:58] Speaker A: They sent the contents to Chicago for testing, and the lab results revealed that there was cause for an arrest. And Lawrence Height, Reverend Haidt, was arrested and charged with the murder of his wife, Anna.
[00:25:19] Speaker B: What? What?
What?
[00:25:22] Speaker A: I know. You knew it. You knew it. Well, you knew it. Shit was fishy. Shit was fishy from the beginning. How they should have all eaten the minced ham. Like they should have all eaten the same thing.
[00:25:33] Speaker B: Well, number one, I think what's disturbing about the minced ham, other than it's minced ham, is that his children were eating it, too.
[00:25:40] Speaker A: I know. He let his children eat it.
[00:25:43] Speaker B: Mm hmm. And whatever it was paralyzed his wife and caused her to. To bleed.
To bleed while vomiting. Oh.
So, yeah. Arrest that dude. Oh. So would you comfort him?
[00:25:58] Speaker A: No, I would not comfort him. In a dramatic turn of events, Sheriff Holcomb apprehended Reverend height in Tamiroa, Illinois.
That same day, authorities searched the parsonage in Ina where the heights lived, and they found a box of arsenic.
[00:26:25] Speaker B: Such an old timey way to die.
[00:26:27] Speaker A: Of old timey arseny poisoning.
[00:26:30] Speaker B: Poisoning.
[00:26:31] Speaker A: As Haidt sat in jail, he shrugged off the tension, telling reporters that he merely bought the arsenic to deal with.
[00:26:40] Speaker B: Rats in the pesky, them pesky, pesky rats. I tell you what.
[00:26:46] Speaker A: Save. Do it again. Save varmints.
[00:26:48] Speaker B: Them pesty, pesty varmints. You just need arsenic. That's how you get rid of them. That's how you get rid of them. Folks.
[00:26:56] Speaker A: I like when you do his voice. That's fun.
[00:26:58] Speaker B: Mm hmm.
[00:26:59] Speaker A: So I can't wait for your part.
The community buzzed with anticipation as a jury was quickly convened. And on September 18, just two months after Anna's death, the body of Wilfred Sweeten was ordered to be exhumed.
[00:27:16] Speaker B: What? What now? What now? What now? Who are you calling now, Elsie? Who you calling?
[00:27:22] Speaker A: The town held its breath, eager for the lab results to come back from Chicago that could unravel the mystery surrounding these troubling events. Who wrote this outline?
[00:27:33] Speaker B: Mmm.
Do you like it?
[00:27:37] Speaker A: The next day, Anna Height's remains were exhumed, and several more of her organs were removed for a more thorough investigation. If I were Anna Height, I would like. Guys, come on.
[00:27:48] Speaker B: Like, how much do you need of mine?
[00:27:50] Speaker A: Really?
[00:27:50] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:27:50] Speaker A: How much do you need? So the investigation continues, and despite the revelation that Reverend Haidta had purchased poison on three separate occasions, twice in Mount Vernon, Illinois, and once in Benton. He remained calm throughout the hours and hours of questioning, and he claimed that there were rats around the parsonage that were just terrible.
What did he say, jill?
[00:28:21] Speaker B: Them pesky varmints. They carried off young chickens right before my eyes, and I had to resort to something stronger.
[00:28:32] Speaker A: That's good.
Thank you.
I'm kind of getting, like, Bill Clinton mixed with Yosemite Sam.
[00:28:41] Speaker B: Mm hmm. I'm trying for something in the middle, you know? I don't want to be too much of a caricature, but I want it to seem real and authentic.
[00:28:47] Speaker A: No, I'm enjoying this. Okay. So, while in jail, Reverend Heights spent his time singing religious hymns. Religious hymns? You know, God songs.
[00:28:57] Speaker B: Mm hmm.
[00:28:58] Speaker A: Uh huh. And there was some rumors, though, that the reverend was a little too worldly. And, like, on the side, they were like, yeah, he's singing hymns in jail. But people are saying, you know, this guy shares risque stories with people as a clergyman.
[00:29:17] Speaker B: Shut up. How gross.
[00:29:20] Speaker A: Yeah, he, like, told dirty jokes and stuff. Like, that was his kind of reputation.
[00:29:25] Speaker B: Well, okay, so now going back to the feeling, the breast to comfort. He's just nasty anyway.
[00:29:31] Speaker A: He is nasty anyway.
[00:29:33] Speaker B: So I think, like, in that context now, you know that he's, like, nasty. You know that, like, he's flirtatious. So for him to get, like, a quick, like, touch of a booby like that does not seem out of character for him.
[00:29:47] Speaker A: True. But it also makes me think that the only reason he's singing these religious songs in jail is for effect, to make people think that he's all holy. True.
When asked about his feelings towards women, he insisted.
[00:30:02] Speaker B: Jill, I have never had lustful thoughts about a woman since I was married.
[00:30:09] Speaker A: I did nothing.
[00:30:10] Speaker B: I know. I have so hard not to.
[00:30:13] Speaker A: Sexual relations with that woman? With that woman.
[00:30:17] Speaker B: Yep.
[00:30:19] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:30:19] Speaker B: Just rolls off the tongue, doesn't it?
[00:30:22] Speaker A: Laboratory results from Chicago confirmed suspicions Wilford sweeten had died from arsenic poisoning as well. Not food poisoning.
[00:30:35] Speaker B: Not food poisoning. I knew that shit was messed up. You don't have food poisoning for, like, two weeks.
[00:30:41] Speaker A: With this evidence, state's attorney Frank Thompson spent several hours interrogating Reverend Haidt.
Finally, at 03:00 a.m. a reporter rushed in to fetch a Bible, and Haidt was prepared to confess. He broke down. He couldn't handle it.
[00:31:00] Speaker B: He sang like a canary.
[00:31:03] Speaker A: He did. And he admitted to both murders. Jill. Both murders.
Wilford's and his wife Anna's.
[00:31:12] Speaker B: Mm mm, mm.
[00:31:14] Speaker A: He said he did it to relieve their suffering.
[00:31:17] Speaker B: There was nothing, never anything between us, except that she was one of my flock and a good christian. I killed my wife to spare her from the agony of dying from food poisoning.
[00:31:30] Speaker A: After hearing Haidt's confession, state's attorney Thompson told the press that he felt it was his duty to the church not to seek the death penalty, believing that life imprisonment would suffice. So the state's attorney is not looking to put him to death.
Now, there were concerns, though, that here is a reverend, a leader in the church, and he has just admitted to killing two people. So the superintendent of the Methodist Episcopal Church had a meeting with him and was like, yeah, no, you need to give your Reverend license back. Like, you are no longer a clerical in this church.
[00:32:15] Speaker B: You've been 86 from the church. You ask needs to know. You ain't a reverend anymore. You shouldn't have been a reverend in the first place. And you don't fondle the woman's breast when they're sad about their husband. You just don't do that. Reverend.
[00:32:27] Speaker A: I thank you, Jill.
And not only that, he was like. And. And on top of everything, you need to make a full confession. Cause your ass is still lying.
[00:32:39] Speaker B: Mm, mm, mm mm. He ain't wrong.
[00:32:43] Speaker A: He ain't wrong.
[00:32:44] Speaker B: He ain't wrong.
[00:32:44] Speaker A: He ain't wrong. So after talking to his boss, the superintendent, Reverend Hyde, is like, oh, shit, he's right. Like, that conversation really shook him. And he's like, all right, I need to confess everything this time. Like, everything. And he did. And part of that was implicating Elsie sweeten in the murder of her husband.
[00:33:10] Speaker B: So the next day, Elsie was arrested, and she was vehemently denying any involvement in what she termed it, the love pack. Can you take her quotes, Jennifer?
[00:33:23] Speaker A: I can't fathom why a haight named me as a murderer.
She exclaimed, frustration evident in her voice. He must be a coward, eager to share the blame with anyone who could be a suspect.
[00:33:37] Speaker B: I love it.
[00:33:38] Speaker A: Do you agree?
[00:33:39] Speaker B: Yes, I love it. I love that it's a little Katherine Hepburn. A little country, but a little country. I do love it.
[00:33:46] Speaker A: Little Bonnie and Clyde. I'm picking up on Bonnie and Clyde. A little gone with the wind. Melanie Wilkes.
[00:33:51] Speaker B: I love it. There's layers to it. I love every second of it.
[00:33:56] Speaker A: We'll see if I can keep it up. It's probably gonna morph as we keep going, but that's all right.
[00:34:01] Speaker B: That's what happened with Clinton and me. Hang in there, guys. We'll be right back.
[00:34:07] Speaker A: Hi, everyone. We are so excited to unveil the first book in our series entitled Common Mystics Present, ghost on the road. Volume one, murders and mysteries, mysterious deaths. It's everything you love about common mystics and more. It's a retelling of ten of our favorite stories from our pod with exciting.
[00:34:25] Speaker B: Extras, extras like souvenirs, what we took away from the experience, and what to know if you go, if you decide to travel in our footsteps, pre order.
[00:34:33] Speaker A: The kindle edition now, all other formats of the book will be available for
[email protected] on July 1, 2023.
[00:34:42] Speaker B: Thanks, guys. Now back to the show. So his accusations, she said, were a terrible lie. Just terrible. What'd she say?
[00:34:52] Speaker A: His accusation is a terrible lie.
And she spoke to reporters, dismissing the rumors of any secret love affair, insisting he came to our house occasionally to deliver milk. But he never paid me any special.
[00:35:08] Speaker B: Attention other than that one day where I had my breast fondled on the porch and the neighbor saw it. Okay.
[00:35:15] Speaker A: Once he did put his hand on my knee during a conversation, and I firmly rebuked him for it. I thought he was a good man. Sanctimonious, sincere in his church work, and spiritually upright.
[00:35:32] Speaker B: I loved that last upright. That just felt really good. You know what it felt for me? Places in the heart.
[00:35:38] Speaker A: You're buttering me up.
[00:35:39] Speaker B: No faces in the heart. Sally Field's sister. That's what that. That's where that brought me to. Thank you.
[00:35:44] Speaker A: All right, well, I'm glad I could bring you somewhere. Okay. And by the way, why is the reverend a milk delivery man, too? Like, do they not pay reverends enough?
[00:35:54] Speaker B: Apparently, he's quite the speaker. He's in high demand. He's delivering milk. He's speaking all over different counties.
[00:35:59] Speaker A: I was just wondering about that.
[00:36:01] Speaker B: So, it was clear to the police that Elsie was not gonna. Was not gonna fess up that she had any involvement in her husband's murder. So what did they do?
[00:36:10] Speaker A: True.
So they put Reverend Haidt and Elsie in the same cell together to see what they would say to each other. And they were, like, listening in, like, with cops and shit, you know, like, you know what I'm saying? Like a glass against the cell.
[00:36:29] Speaker B: So this is what Reverend Hatt was saying to.
[00:36:32] Speaker A: Oh, my God. We're gonna have a dialogue.
[00:36:35] Speaker B: Sweetheart, I'm standing in the light of sanctification. You did your killing first. And then I followed. I confessed mine, and I'm at a peace now.
You know you're guilty.
I can't be the only one to shoulder this blame.
[00:36:54] Speaker A: Lawrence, dear. I'll look after your children while you're in prison.
[00:36:59] Speaker B: No, Elsie, I want you to share this burden with me.
[00:37:04] Speaker A: Their conversation took a steamy turn as kissing noises emerged from the cell.
[00:37:11] Speaker B: And boobies.
[00:37:12] Speaker A: Booby squeezes, probably. As state's attorney Thompson escorted Reverend Hyde away, he was overwhelmed, declaring, I love.
[00:37:22] Speaker B: That woman, and I think she feels the same.
I think she feels the same.
[00:37:28] Speaker A: And then something changed in Elsie. Something shifted, because within the hour after that meeting, she did confess to her husband's murder, revealing her story in a signed confession, her demeanor surprisingly calm as the truth finally surfaced.
[00:37:47] Speaker B: There has not been one moment of this woman's actions that have ever been called calm. She was like calling 50 doctors to come look at her husband. You know what I mean? Like, the fact that she sat there in a demeanor that was surprisingly calm is very strange for me.
[00:38:05] Speaker A: Now, I have a lot of dialogue that you want me to read here.
[00:38:08] Speaker B: Oh, I know.
[00:38:09] Speaker A: You need to cut me off so that I'm not talking too much through this.
[00:38:13] Speaker B: So. Yes. Okay. Jennifer, can you please read for us the excerpts from her confession?
[00:38:22] Speaker A: I will.
[00:38:24] Speaker B: Yeah, that's right. Warm it up.
[00:38:26] Speaker A: I noticed in April 1924 that Laurence Hatt had affection for me. My husband had, for some time, been treating me with a lack of love. And about three months ago, Reverend Haight suggested that he get some poison to give to my husband, and he would do the same with his wife.
[00:38:48] Speaker B: Mm. Mm. Then what happened?
[00:38:51] Speaker A: At first, I was horrified, but I had such confidence in him that it seemed the right thing to do. And we finally agreed. A week or so before my husband was hurt at the mine at Nason, Lawrence Hart gave me a paper bag with some poison in it and told me to give some to Wilford. Wilfred was hurt on the night of July 16, and we went to Benton the following day. While we were there, we went in the drugstore, and I had ice cream and a Coca cola.
[00:39:29] Speaker B: I am riveted.
Keep going.
[00:39:34] Speaker A: And on the way home, I gave him some chocolate candy in which I had mixed some of the poison hat had given me.
Wilford became very ill, but later seemed to be better. So on Tuesday, I gave him some more poison and oatmeal. He seemed to grow a little better again. And after the doctors waited on him on Friday, July 25, I gave Wilford the final dose of poison in some tomato soup.
He grew so much worse and died on July 28. Every time Mister Hutt came to the house during Wilford's illness, he encouraged me to give Wilford more poison.
I think this bitch should write a recipe book.
[00:40:25] Speaker B: Oh, my God. I love how she seems frustrated with him getting better. She's like. And then I had to give him some more.
[00:40:33] Speaker A: Seriously. And she's totally blaming Reverend Haidt. It's like Reverend Haidt gave me the poisonous. Reverend Hawke told me to give him moa.
I don't know when he poisoned his wife, but she became ill and died. And I suppose that he had poisoned her. Until I became infatuated with Mister Haight, I had always led a blameless life and had been a true wife and mother. That is the truth, so help me God.
[00:41:05] Speaker B: So following their confessions, Alsi was taken to Marion county jail, and Haidt was taken to the Washington county jail at Nashville, Illinois.
[00:41:15] Speaker A: Right.
[00:41:16] Speaker B: But there was still more confessing to do. These people just would not shut up. So during his visit to the Nashville jail, there were three ministers that came in, so he continued to confess.
[00:41:30] Speaker A: What did he say, Jill?
[00:41:31] Speaker B: Oh, Jennifer. He said, I am guilty. When Elsie sweat and walked down the church aisle towards me, I felt an overwhelming power that I could not resist.
[00:41:41] Speaker A: Mm, mm, mm. He also wrote to his daughter, revealing how he and Elsie had actually orchestrated their secret meetings.
[00:41:50] Speaker B: He sho did? Jennifer show. Did he did.
[00:41:53] Speaker A: Yeah. So they had been. They had been having an affair.
[00:41:56] Speaker B: 100%.
[00:41:57] Speaker A: And he was dumb enough to write his daughter about it. And by the way, that's not something your daughter wants to know.
[00:42:04] Speaker B: Ew. On so many things, dad. Ew.
Elsie's eager to share her story and spoke candidly to reporters, unaware that her words were later gonna be used against her. Jennifer, what did she say?
[00:42:19] Speaker A: I wanted love. She confessed. But Wilford sweetin didn't give me the kind I craved. He was cold, lacking the affection I longed for. I married him, 16, out of desperation. My family was struggling. At twelve, I had to leave school to work as a housemaid. A housemaid. Then I met Wilford, and I thought of marrying him. And that would change everything. I loved him, and he claimed to love me back. The kids came, and they were everything to me. But something essential was missing. I had once been deeply religious, yearning to reconnect with God. Sweeten earned a decent wage, 40 or $50 a week at the mine. But he'd come home and head straight to bed, leaving me feeling unfulfilled.
[00:43:15] Speaker B: Gross. Absolutely gross.
[00:43:18] Speaker A: About a year ago, Pastor Hayt came into town. He quickly gained my trust, and before I knew it, my heart, too. During a revival meeting, he held my hands and professed his love for me. Afterwards, I was consumed by confusion. I began to love him back, but I couldn't shake the reality of my marriage. He told me his wife didn't love him either, and I believed him. He seemed most godlike to me.
Then one evening on the church steps, he told me he couldn't live without me and would leave his wife to marry me. The thought of divorce danced in my mind. I prayed to be a good wife and mother. But instead, I became his devoted follower, worshipping him like a kingdom.
Another night at church, he suggested we needed to eliminate the obstacles in our way. It horrified me. Yet the more I tried to dismiss the idea, the more it lingered. I felt compelled to obey him. So when he handed me poison, I added it to my husband's food again and again and again and again. In that moment, it didn't feel wrong anymore. Love had become my sole focus, regardless of how others might judge.
When sweetin died, I felt no sorrow. And Pastor Haidt delivered a moving sermon. We had a $1,000 in insurance, which I used to secure our home while I took a job as a clerk for $6 a week. And my family helped to care for the boys. It was then and only then that I began to realize how much I truly loved my husband and how good he had been to me over our 16 years of marriage. And then I grew afraid that Reverend Haight would turn on his wife, and I didn't want that for her. He no longer felt like my God, and I grew weary of him. My mind cleared, and I recognized that he wasn't the saint I had imagined. He was a preacher who shouldn't have filled my heart with sins and murder. All I wanted was to focus on my children and the love we had once shared.
[00:46:05] Speaker B: Wow. May I say, just, that was really good.
[00:46:10] Speaker A: This bitch, even as I'm saying her words, I just want to slap her.
[00:46:14] Speaker B: I told you. I told you. I'm like, I can't reread this.
[00:46:17] Speaker A: Shut up. Shut up. You cannot blame someone else for your.
[00:46:21] Speaker B: Actions and the dramatics. Like, honestly being. Seriously, it's so annoying. I cannot. And to a reporter, and who is taking her to jail, that they let this woman talk to 30, like, for 30 minutes to a reporter, like, wouldn't they be like, come on, ma'am. Come on, ma'am. Like, please, like, move your ass. You're in prison now. You don't get to talk to reporters.
[00:46:43] Speaker A: So, basically, both of them, Elsie and Reverend Haidt, were like, we were in passionless marriages, and that's why we were driven into each other's arms. And then we were desperate. Desperate to plot and to poison our spouses so that we could be together.
[00:47:01] Speaker B: If I may, let me quote. Reverend Haidt passionately declared, there's a vital lesson here. Marriages must be rooted in fiery love or happiness will remain elusive.
[00:47:15] Speaker A: I'm sorry, I disagree. That's some bullshit.
[00:47:19] Speaker B: That is some bullshit.
[00:47:20] Speaker A: That is some bullshit.
[00:47:21] Speaker B: First of all, if first of all, Wilford, he was a good man. He may drink too much, okay? I ain't throwing shit. I know. God knows I drink too much. But he worked his ass off, came home from a coal mine and just wanted to go to bed. And this bitch is like, I feel so unfulfilled. I'd be like, bitch, are you serious right now? Then you get your ass up and go to work at the fucking coal mine, and then you can come home and go to sleep, and I can be crying that you how unfulfilled I am. That's number one. Number two, he like the fact that she didn't have to work, that they had insurance, like life insurance out on him. Those are all indicators that he took his responsibilities to seriously. And if she just stopped and was like, hey, I need some cuddling. I need my boobs fondled. I need this, he probably would have been like, okay, I hear you. Not tonight. Can we do it on the weekends? Because I'm tired as fuck from working in a coal mine.
[00:48:14] Speaker A: Shall we go to the trial?
[00:48:16] Speaker B: Let's go to the trial, John.
[00:48:17] Speaker A: Let's go to the trial. So the case of Reverend Haidt and Elsie sweeten captivated the local community and the mediaev, drawing huge crowds to the courtroom for the arraignment in October 1924.
Both defendants pled not guilty.
[00:48:36] Speaker B: I mean, all the confessing. They're doing all the confessing seriously.
[00:48:40] Speaker A: The trial faced challenges, including, of course, selecting an impartial jury because of the widespread media circus surrounding the case.
[00:48:50] Speaker B: Well, and they're basically celebrities now. Hyde had his own celebrity, first as a pastor, and she's building up a celebrity, being the victim wife and the preacher girl.
[00:49:03] Speaker A: I do it better.
[00:49:04] Speaker B: You do it so good.
[00:49:06] Speaker A: Witnesses included the doctors, their friends, and they all testified about Wilford Sweetin's death, with Elsie's own father in law proclaiming that Elsie confessed to him that she had poisoned him.
[00:49:24] Speaker B: Apparently, he visited her in the jail that she was at when she was being held for trial. And he walked up to her and he's like, elsie, did you kill my boy? And she said, why, yes, I did.
[00:49:37] Speaker A: But I didn't mean it. The godlike preacher told me to.
[00:49:42] Speaker B: The godlike, sexy preacher had me under his thrall, sir.
[00:49:46] Speaker A: He touched my bosom.
[00:49:48] Speaker B: He hasn't been touched before like that. Not by a man like God.
[00:49:53] Speaker A: So Haidt's defense was that he was insane. He argued insanity due to childhood trauma and mental health issues. You know what? Who doesn't have childhood trauma and mental health issues?
[00:50:07] Speaker B: Cry me a fucking river. Really, sir? Really? Really, sir?
[00:50:12] Speaker A: After deliberation, the jury found Reverend Haidt guilty, resulting in a life sentence.
[00:50:19] Speaker B: At least he didn't say, like, I killed my wife because she was fat and bigger than me.
[00:50:25] Speaker A: Yeah, at least he didn't say that.
[00:50:26] Speaker B: Cause that's basically, like, literally. Cause that's what he was saying before. He was like, he was embarrassed to be with her in town. I know. He, like, kept her at home. He never wanted to be seen with her in public. So the fact that she was at that revival that. That Elsie went to, too, was probably, like, her. The last time he was gonna, like, take her out for a romp, but he kept her at home. Cause he was embarrassed of her.
[00:50:50] Speaker A: That is so sad.
[00:50:52] Speaker B: It makes me sick to my stomach. Because, again, she was probably, like, literally, she didn't have the ozempic trizone. She doesn't have the things.
[00:51:01] Speaker A: She did not. And 200 pounds is not even big.
[00:51:05] Speaker B: Especially because she was a large, like, again, taller woman.
[00:51:09] Speaker A: She's tall.
[00:51:09] Speaker B: She was tall.
[00:51:11] Speaker A: And even after he was found guilty, he still was enjoying his, quote, celebrity. In fact, on the day of his sentencing, as the train made its way to the prison in Chester, crowds gathered at every stop because they were trying to get a look of this infamous clergyman. And he was, like, lifting himself up in the window so that people could see him clearly.
[00:51:35] Speaker B: The. Whoa. Gross. Like, seriously gross. I cannot.
[00:51:39] Speaker A: Seriously gross. Now, Elsie. Ask me about Elsie.
[00:51:43] Speaker B: Do you. I don't want to know about Elsie. She's so annoying. Tell me about annoying Elsie.
[00:51:48] Speaker A: People want to know. Elsie received 35 years in prison with the possibility of parole after eleven.
Now, Elsie's lawyer made a quick motion for a new trial with the judge, but the judge denied that request.
[00:52:03] Speaker B: Mm hmm.
[00:52:05] Speaker A: When she arrived at the prison in Joliet, there was a wave of journalists and a crowd waiting for her. And with determination in her voice, she declared, someday the truth will emerge, and I shall be free.
[00:52:23] Speaker B: Ask me about the car ride to the jail. And Juliet, please, for the love of God, I'm dying today.
[00:52:29] Speaker A: Tell me about the car ride to.
[00:52:30] Speaker B: The jail, you guys.
Oh, my God. So on the way to the jail, she's like, Mick. She asks if she can visit her husband's grave. Jennifer, do her voice.
[00:52:39] Speaker A: May I please stop to see my husband's grave?
[00:52:43] Speaker B: The sheriff was like, sure, sure, lady, we'll stop.
They go. She throws herself on the grave and crying how wrong and how guilty and like. And how bad she felt and how much she loved him. Do you want to take that sound effect for me?
[00:53:02] Speaker A: I really don't.
[00:53:03] Speaker B: Please do.
[00:53:04] Speaker A: I don't even want to give that any voice.
[00:53:06] Speaker B: Please. It's so good. You're good. You're so good at this.
[00:53:10] Speaker A: Wilford.
If only I had seen the light. But I have.
[00:53:16] Speaker B: Too late.
Ma'am, we gotta take you to prison now. Can you please get your ass back in the vehicle?
[00:53:24] Speaker A: Wilford. Wilford, I do love you. I didn't know before.
[00:53:31] Speaker B: So the sheriff picks her ass up because she will not get off the ground and keep her. Release me.
[00:53:36] Speaker A: Release me. My husband needs me.
[00:53:42] Speaker B: And he like, throws her in the car. And he's like, this bitch again, like, seriously. You know, he could not have driven faster to Joliet State prison.
[00:53:49] Speaker A: Oh, my gosh.
[00:53:50] Speaker B: Which, fun fact, we were there. Oh, yeah, yeah. Not in prison there, but we were there.
[00:53:56] Speaker A: Not yet. Not gone.
[00:53:57] Speaker B: Well, we didn't do time there.
[00:54:02] Speaker A: Thanks for that clarification.
Yeah. So 35 years in prison for her possibility of parole after eleven.
The judge who heard this case said that of all the numerous adultery and divorce cases that he had ever seen, what baffled him was how a minister, a reverend, could organize a murder and then turn around to convert the victim and even preach at his funeral.
Like, that's some balls. That's ballsy balls.
[00:54:39] Speaker B: That's some hubris as fuck.
[00:54:41] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:54:43] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:54:43] Speaker A: So Elsie appealed, and her case was seen at the supreme court of Illinois. On April 20, 1927, the court issued its decision, and it granted Elsie a new trial on the grounds that she should have been tried separately in the original case. Okay, I can see that.
[00:55:05] Speaker B: Okay.
[00:55:06] Speaker A: On May 10, 1927, two and a half years into her incarceration, Elsie returned to Jefferson county for a new trial. Her request for release on bond was denied, so she was forced to remain in jail until her trial date. Despite no one in this Illinois county ever having received a death sentence. In Jefferson county, prosecutors did aim to seek the death penalty for her.
[00:55:32] Speaker B: I. Yeah, they had about enough.
[00:55:34] Speaker A: They were sick of her.
[00:55:34] Speaker B: Yeah. She is annoying, to be honest.
[00:55:37] Speaker A: So annoying. So proceedings commenced on September 13, and after reviewing about 111 potential jurors, a jury composed of eleven farmers and one garageman was finally selected by the end of the third day. I assume a garageman is someone who works in a garage. Like fixing cars?
[00:56:00] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:56:00] Speaker A: Okay.
[00:56:01] Speaker B: Old timey talk for mechanic.
[00:56:03] Speaker A: So eleven farmers and one mechanic, all men. Much of the prosecution's testimony mirrored the initial trial. Right.
[00:56:13] Speaker B: That's such a good fact that they're all men.
[00:56:16] Speaker A: Mm hmm.
Yeah, it is. Cause, you know, women would not be buying her bullshit.
[00:56:23] Speaker B: I don't buy her bullshit. But you can see how men would eat that shit up.
[00:56:27] Speaker A: Mm hmm.
The judge added an intriguing twist by dismissing the written confession that Elsie had signed. So that confession was not allowed in this second trial. But he did allow her oral confession made to the journalist and her father in law.
Now the jury, after hearing everything, reached a unanimous verdict.
She was found not guilty. Elsie Sweetin was acquitted. She embraced her three sons while her mother wept tears of joy. And the courtroom erupted in applause and cheers from a gathering of well wishers who surrounded Elsie. That's because she became like some sort of folk hero. And people were singing songs about her and her love.
[00:57:24] Speaker B: And she was like, courting the media. She was putting herself out there as a victim instead of like a perpetrator. And saying that she's under the thrall of this preacher. To commit murder of her husband is really insane.
[00:57:41] Speaker A: So wrong.
[00:57:42] Speaker B: So Lawrence Haidt was paroled on March 28, 1952. After serving just 27 years in prison, he returned to Mount Vernon, where he passed away on May 6, 1959 at the age of 84 and was laid to rest at Oakwood Cemetery.
[00:58:00] Speaker A: Yep.
[00:58:01] Speaker B: Following Elsie's second trial and her being acquitted, she relocated to Chicago and remarried. Eventually she found her way to San Diego, where she died on October 31, 1960.
In the Ina observer out of Ina, Illinois, on Thursday, November 17, 1960, there was an obituary.
It said, we are informed that misses Jack Turley of San Diego, California died there on October 31. She was about 70 years old. Misses Turley will be remembered as Misses Elsie Swidden. She's survived by her three sons. La la la la. These are the facts. What do you think?
[00:58:47] Speaker A: Well, I think it's bullshit that people were still talking about her in the 1960s.
[00:58:55] Speaker B: They reran articles in the nineties about this case. So, like, 75 years later, I can't.
[00:59:03] Speaker A: Stand Elsie, and I don't want to talk about her anymore. And I don't want to give her any more voice. And I can't stand the reverend because he's gross. And so gross. Yeah, so gross.
[00:59:13] Speaker B: He couldn't be grosser. He literally could not be grosser.
[00:59:16] Speaker A: Who do you think we're giving a voice to today? Who do you want to highlight?
[00:59:20] Speaker B: Wilford.
[00:59:21] Speaker A: Poor Wilford.
[00:59:23] Speaker B: And Anna.
[00:59:24] Speaker A: And poor Anna.
Like, for sure?
[00:59:28] Speaker B: Yeah, for sure. I just want to hug Anna. I just really want to hug her and be like, I'm so sorry. Like, not only did that man systematically poison his wife, he also killed his. Well, he almost killed the kids.
[00:59:45] Speaker A: Oops.
[00:59:46] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:59:46] Speaker A: Yeah, he almost. Yeah. He made his kids sick, for sure. And he was cheating on her, and he treated her badly. And he treated her badly. And he treated her badly. He kept her at home because he was ashamed of her. He flirted with other women. He had an affair behind her back.
[01:00:03] Speaker B: Yeah, he was fucking nasty guy. And Wilford, he was a hard working man that cared about his family and died because he didn't have the energy to fondle his wife's breast.
[01:00:16] Speaker A: Hey, Jill, I want to talk about the hits that got us here. Tell me, what is the significance of the big muddy river correctional facility?
[01:00:27] Speaker B: So we were being drawn to the men's prison, right. And that prison is in Ina.
[01:00:37] Speaker A: Oh, my God.
[01:00:39] Speaker B: Yes.
[01:00:39] Speaker A: Wait, was the reverend there?
[01:00:42] Speaker B: That's where the story took place. In Illinois? Yeah.
[01:00:46] Speaker A: Okay.
[01:00:46] Speaker B: I see the feeling that there should be, like, a city there, because when we're driving in flat Illinois, land, there looks like it's only a prison. That's why it was so confusing with, like, is there, like, there should be a city there? Our story should be in the city. But it was like, there was no city. It literally looked like nothing was there, but, yeah, Jennifer. The feeling of the turbulent water converging, like, two streams.
[01:01:10] Speaker A: What does that mean? What was. What's special about Rend Lake?
[01:01:13] Speaker B: Oh, my God. So, Rend Lake is created by a dam that pools water from converging streams into it. So the two streams, like, meet, and they dammed the water, and they made the lake Wren lake. So you were feeling these turbulent waters, and it was, like, turbulent, like rivers, like little baby streams.
[01:01:36] Speaker A: You are so cute. And yet, that has nothing to do with our story.
[01:01:39] Speaker B: Well, it does because Wren Lake is used at the prison. Like, it's right there in Ina.
[01:01:47] Speaker A: Okay.
[01:01:48] Speaker B: No, for real. It's in Ina. So just the fact that I'm like.
[01:01:52] Speaker A: Oh, okay, got it. So I was pinpointing, psychically the location of the story, right.
[01:01:57] Speaker B: Because I'm like, there should be a city here. And you're, like.
[01:02:00] Speaker A: You're telling where the water's converging. Oh, my gosh. Okay. That's pretty cool. Hey, how about that hymn, Eagle's wings, that was flowing through your head?
[01:02:09] Speaker B: I think that was not only a metaphor for a minister, because it's not a catholic song. Right, right. Which you just told me about. Also, he was singing the hymns in his prisons.
[01:02:23] Speaker A: Yes. To make himself look all pious and shit. And the big cross that we saw near Effingham when we were on the.
[01:02:31] Speaker B: Road, it definitely pointed us to a non catholic kind of church. What would you call it? Denomination.
[01:02:39] Speaker A: Yeah, non catholic denomination. And also the prevalence of religion in.
[01:02:43] Speaker B: This story and religion being creepy. Cause it creeped us out.
True.
[01:02:48] Speaker A: And what about the song from Charlotte's web?
[01:02:51] Speaker B: So, the song is about when Wilbur wins the contest, and they're saying congratulations to him. And Wilbur won the contest because he was a celebrity, not because he was the best looking pig. It's because Charlotte made him a celebrity with all those words. So he was freed from slaughterhouse because of his celebrity.
[01:03:13] Speaker A: And that kind of ties into Truman Capote, right.
[01:03:18] Speaker B: Well, I was thinking that ties into Elsie.
[01:03:21] Speaker A: Oh, that ties into Elsie, for sure. Because. Because. Well, both of them. Elsie and the reverend, were both, like, famous because of their. Their celebrity associations with this crime.
[01:03:38] Speaker B: And Elsie was going to be charged with murder and get the death penalty if she lost her appeal. So her celebrity that was used in court. The reporter used her words, or was allowed to submit her reporting of what Elsie said to get her from the death penalty.
[01:03:59] Speaker A: So it's an analogy. Yeah. Because Wilbur would have been put to death, too, and eaten because he was a pig.
[01:04:05] Speaker B: But not for the words that Elsie.
[01:04:07] Speaker A: Would have been putting together.
[01:04:08] Speaker B: Yeah.
[01:04:09] Speaker A: If not for her celebrity.
[01:04:11] Speaker B: Yep.
[01:04:12] Speaker A: Wow. Okay.
[01:04:13] Speaker B: What were you thinking about Truman compote?
[01:04:15] Speaker A: Well, you know, and I don't want to get too much into this, but in my head, I've read a little bit about Truman Capote, and I've seen in cold blood, and I've seen the movie Truman, I think it's called. Right. Or is it called Capote?
[01:04:28] Speaker B: I don't remember if it's called Capote.
[01:04:30] Speaker A: All right, whatever. I. There's a movie, a biopic about his life, and he really fed off celebrity, which is interesting because he was kind of that person who really fed off of it. And also his association with that small town murder that also is, I think, echoed here in this story.
[01:04:51] Speaker B: Agreed. Love it.
[01:04:52] Speaker A: Yeah. Wow.
[01:04:53] Speaker B: Why do you think this story found us today? Why do you think we're talking about this? I think there's a lot of psas to be taken away from here. Number one, if a woman's sad. Do not feel her breast. That's not something you do. That's number one.
[01:05:06] Speaker A: True. Number two, if you have a big, heavy wife, take her out on the town and be proud of her.
[01:05:13] Speaker B: Be proud of her. If you're just a little man, feeling little because your wife is big, that's on you, bro. Don't make her something else. It's just you being small in every way.
[01:05:25] Speaker A: What other lesson do you have for us?
[01:05:27] Speaker B: Also, my PSA would be, don't kill your fucking spouses. How about that? How about we just go on record and be like, that's not a good thing.
[01:05:37] Speaker A: Yeah, but if you are, choose the same type of food for both food poisoning, you know, cover up sort of situations. It was stupid to put the arsenic in the minced meat at one household and then the chocolate in the other household. Come on, choose one thing.
[01:05:56] Speaker B: I agree with you 100%. All I know. How did Anna get, like. My question is, how did Anna get paralyzed?
[01:06:03] Speaker A: I don't know. We're gonna have to look that up. That's some.
[01:06:06] Speaker B: That is true.
[01:06:07] Speaker A: Apparently arsenic can paralyze you.
[01:06:10] Speaker B: Poor Anna. So thank you guys for listening. We hope you enjoyed our voice work. We tried very hard.
[01:06:16] Speaker A: What are we talking about on the detours?
[01:06:18] Speaker B: The detours. We have so much we can talk about. There is a. Another infamous crime that happened in Ina in 1987. We can talk about that.
[01:06:29] Speaker A: All right.
[01:06:30] Speaker B: And it kind of ties into what you were saying about the Truman compote in cold blood.
[01:06:35] Speaker A: Really?
[01:06:35] Speaker B: Yeah. We'll talk about the details of that still unsolved murder.
[01:06:40] Speaker A: Ooh. Okay. We'll talk about that at detours. So see you there on Patreon at tier two and above.
[01:06:46] Speaker B: We need some more uplifting detours because they've been bringing me down lately. Like, honestly, they've been not having me walk away with a good, smiley feeling. Okay, check out our website, our new website, commonmystics.net, dot follow us on all the socials at common mystics pod.
[01:07:04] Speaker A: Thank you for downloading, liking, and sharing. We love looking at our numbers, and we really do appreciate you.
[01:07:11] Speaker B: Thank you guys so much. We love you.
[01:07:13] Speaker A: Love you. Goodbye.
[01:07:15] Speaker B: Love you, Jennifer.
[01:07:16] Speaker A: Love you, Jill. Bye.
[01:07:18] Speaker B: This has been a common mystics mediataindeh.
